Northfield Shares

Northfield Shares Distributes Over $62,000 in Grants to Local Nonprofits

Northfield Shares, a community foundation centered on philanthropy, volunteerism and collaborative leadership, has selected 12 area nonprofits to receive grants for 2018. Thirteen different grants, totaling $62,300, will be funded by seven different endowment funds inside of the Northfield Shares organization, plus a $10,000 grant from the Ames Fund of The Minneapolis Foundation.

“One primary way that Northfield Shares advances its mission is to annually award grants to organizations working to enhance the Northfield community,” says Janet Hanson, Northfield Shares Board chair. “We feel privileged to help Northfield’s local nonprofit organizations sustain and expand their mission-critical programming.”

Northfield Shares grants are awarded through an application process that begins in mid-October. Organizations seeking funding go through a selection process with a focus on displaying steps to achieving solutions. This year, 29 grant proposals requesting a total of $164,956 were submitted to Northfield Shares. The award granting process was conducted by a grant review committee including members of the Northfield Shares board as well as community volunteers.

New to this year’s process, Northfield Shares set aside the $10,000 from the Ames Fund of the Minneapolis Foundation for a special collaborative leadership grant. The money funded the majority of a $15,000 grant to Northfield TORCH for its Northfield Community College program.

According to Mike Krance, Northfield Shares executive director, the organization’s regular grants process doesn’t paint the full picture of Northfield Shares’ philanthropic impact as a community foundation. “In 2017, in addition to providing over $68,000 in grants, we enabled people to provide $231,000 in grants through their donor advised funds,” he says. “Those funds, not only benefited the Northfield community, but also other organizations throughout Minnesota and across the country. Thus far, in 2018, we have nearly $16,000 in donor advised fund grant distributions.”

Since the 2007-2008 grant cycle when the organization was called the Northfield Area Foundation, through the most recent 2017-2018 grant cycle, Northfield Shares has provided more than $487,000 in funding to local nonprofit organizations.

“We’re excited to know that as Northfield Shares continues to grow, so will its impact in working alongside the local nonprofits for the benefit of Northfield,” says Krance. “Through the continuous addition of new named endowments, donor advised funds and nonprofit agency funds, the sky is the limit for not only our granting capacity to the nonprofit community, but for expanding our mission as well.”

Northfield Shares is the Northfield area’s community foundation founded to advance philanthropy, inspire volunteerism and promote collaborative leadership. The organization was formed when 5th Bridge and Northfield Area Foundation merged in 2014. For more information about Northfield Shares, visit northfieldshares.org.